Police muscle in on funeral cortege

'Jack' and Kerry Jackson's time of grieving for son Dean (in the portrait) was disrupted. Picture / John McCombe

When Les ("Jack") Jackson rode his motorbike behind the hearse carrying his son's body, he was not expecting to be pulled over by the police.

But the grieving father and his family were left distressed after Henderson police tried to stop him for not wearing a motorcycle helmet in the funeral cortege.

Mr Jackson, a member of the Akarana Riders Club, says he rode his Harley-Davidson without a helmet as a mark of respect to his only child, Dean, a blind man who died of an epileptic seizure at 26.

Three police cars tried to stop him in the short distance between the funeral at the Lincoln Rd Bible Chapel and the burial at the Waikumete Cemetery, pushing in behind Mr Jackson and in front of his wife, Kerry, who was being driven behind him.

The funeral director, who declined to be named, complained to the police.

"The mother was extremely upset that they cut in between her and the hearse, and so were a number of other people," he said.

Dean Jackson was active in his church and a regular guest on the Radio Live show Dawn Patrol with Des and Les, where he sang songs on air.

Co-host Bruce Hopkins (aka "Les"), one of 400 people at the funeral, said: "I came out on to Lincoln Rd and there were about 12 or 15 big motorbikes, Harleys and all sorts, which held up the traffic until they could all get in a line and travel along Lincoln Rd. I had tears in my eyes because it was such a powerful image."

But another mourner, who was listening to the police radio in his car, said he heard a an officer describe the procession as "a gang funeral".

Mr Jackson, a truck driver, refused to stop when the police cars pushed in. "There was no way I was pulling over. That would have held everyone up."

When the cortege stopped at a roundabout, an officer shouted to Mr Jackson asking him again to pull over.

"I pointed to the hearse and said, 'That's my son in there'," Mr Jackson said. "He said, 'I don't care'. That's when I gave him the one-finger salute, which evidently he got upset about."

The three police cars in the cortege were joined by two more at the cemetery, but the officers allowed the burial to go ahead. When the mourners left, the police had gone. No charge was laid against Mr Jackson.

Waitakere area police commander Inspector Mark O'Connor said in a statement yesterday that the law did not allow an exemption from wearing a helmet in a funeral cortege.

"Police are sensitive to the needs of families in these circumstances."